Deke Bellavia

Deke: first scuffle at mini-camp!

by Deke Bellavia,posted Jun 6 2012 1:57PM

Wednesday, June 6 - It was hot, frustration got the best of QB Chase Daniel, and a scuffle broke out! Yes, those were just a few of the high points at this morning’s practice for the New Orleans Saints as they continued their 2012 mini-camp.

The Saints will practice indoors this afternoon, so the practice will not be open to the public. After an installation period, the Saints stretched and then broke off into individual groups at about 10:51 a.m. this morning.

In the team’s first session in which the offense faced the defense, QB Chase Daniel connected with WR Marques Colston three times for completions. Back-up QB Sean Canfield completed a pass to WR Andy Tanner followed by a big gain to WR Joe Morgan. Morgan beat DB Cord Parks and made a nice catch.

Then later the Saints worked on seven-on-seven drills. On third and six, Chase Daniel completed a pass to WR Adrian Arrington for a first down. Then the defense came up big as Safety Malcolm Jenkins picked off a pass thrown by Daniel.

Jenkins and second year DB Johnny Patrick both had good practices this morning. Johnny Patrick had arguably his best day as a Saints player. After batting down a ball Patrick came right back on the very next play and picked off a pass.

"He’s doing well," Assistant Head Coach Joe Vitt said of Patrick. "He has been having a very good off season and he made some plays this morning.”

Later in seven-on-seven drills Chase Daniel completed a short pass to FB Jed Collins...And then, the real action took place.

After an incomplete pass, QB Chase Daniel threw the ball down near the feet of LB Curtis Lofton. Lofton obviously did not appreciate the ball being tossed by his feet and he walked back towards Chase Daniel. Then a bit of a scuffle broke out with players from both the Saints offense and defense getting into with each other.

Coaches and players then broke up the scuffle and then the team got back to work.

"Sometimes tempers flare and things like that happen. You have to settle down and get back to work. That’s what we did," Coach Vitt later said.

One of the biggest plays thus far during the mini-camp took place this morning when QB Sean Canfield threw a 35-yard pass to WR Joe Morgan. Morgan has been getting the praise of coaches as well as players this camp.

The Saints then worked on Red Zone Offense versus Red Zone Defense at the end of practice. The Saints offense came up with TD’s, as Nick Toon hauled in a TD, and TE Jimmy Graham had a TD grab from QB Chase Daniel.

The Saints will practice indoors this afternoon, and then wrap up their mini-camp with a 10:15AM practice Thursday morning.

Be sure and get our experts' breakdown of today’s Saints Mini-Camp practice from our pros, Bobby Hebert, Mike Detillier and Hokie Gajan this afternoon on SportsTalk from 4pm-8pm.